This recipe for beef meatballs is a mixture of countless other meatball recipes that helped me find Meatball Nirvana. Serve pasta or crusty garlic bread rolls topped with your preferred red sauce.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 35 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 55 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 (16 ounce) package dry lentils
- 2 cups water
- 1 (29 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- 1 cup chopped carrots
- 1 cup chopped green bell pepper
- 1 cup chopped fresh mushrooms
- 1 cup chopped onion
- ½ cup chopped celery
- 2 teaspoons dried parsley
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- Spread lentils into a shallow 2-quart baking dish. Pour water over lentils, then add tomatoes, carrots, bell pepper, mushrooms, onion, celery, parsley, and garlic. Mix gently to combine. Cover the dish with aluminum foil.
- Bake in the preheated oven until lentils are tender, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Remove aluminum foil and sprinkle Cheddar cheese over casserole. Continue to bake until cheese is melted, about 5 minutes more.
- Colby cheese can be used in place of Cheddar cheese.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 277 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 46 g |
| Cholesterol | 3 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 20 g |
| Protein | 21 g |
| Saturated Fat | 1 g |
| Sodium | 245 mg |
| Sugars | 4 g |
| Fat | 2 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This is a nice, easy base for a filling casserole. I made it as written except I left out the celery, added a few extra cloves of garlic, and used 2 cups chicken stock instead of water. Next time, I would sub some of the lentils out for brown rice for textural variety, add more mushrooms (and cut them in slices rather than dicing – my mistake), and add more seasoning. I think it would be good with oregano, more black pepper, and perhaps some chili powder.
Lentils was way out of my comfort zone but looking for something different and healthy so gave it a try. Based on others’ reviews, I added a jar of Tikka Masala sauce for flavor and it was fantastic! I started with a 2-1/2 qt casserole and it was right at the top so I filled my smallest casserole dish for another day. VERY very good!
It was marginal. I made a nice soup with the leftovers and some veggies. Next time? Skip the casserole and make the soup.
Delicious next time I was told extra cheese please!
Really liked this. super easy. needed some hot sauce, but yummy. Put some in a burrito and added chicken as well. Versatile.
This recipe is easy to follow. It is healthy and delicious!
Used 3 cups of veggie broth, 2 T. cumin, omitted the mushrooms, used 1 red pepper (not green), some red pepper flakes. Also, mixed in some cheese with the veggies. Topped with bread crumbs to give it more substance, and used quite a bit of cheese on top. Pretty yummy. Probably not too low calorie though, with the amount of cheese. Didn’t have a problem at all with pan – used a pyrex lasagna glass pan that’s fairly big. Will make this again.
My family loved this recipe. I did sub out the water for veggie broth to add a bit more flavor. I also left off the cheese so my grandma who has a dairy allergy could eat it. I’m not a big lentils eater but I liked the flavor a lot.
It was delicious and very versatile; you can put any veggie you have on hand or like. Just one thing: I would use less lentils in the future. 16 oz is way too much.
This is amazing. Made it for Christmas dinner potluck. Everyone loved it. I suggest making a half recipe. I had to split it into two casserole dishes.
I made this recipe last night and it was a huge hit even with my husband. My daughter is vegan so we omitted the cheese and added Italian seasoning. We also put it over white rice. The recipe stated 1 1/2-2 hours cooking time but check close to the 1 1/2 as the liquid evaporates and the dish was almost burned. Will definitely make this again!!!
This sounded yummy with all the veggies, but be forewarned, lentils cooked the way recipe suggests, may lead to an excessive amount of flatulence. Dried lentils should be soaked in water for 8 hours beforehand and then rinsed thoroughly before cooking to cut down on the human hydrogen bombs.
We made it without bell pepper, used canned mushrooms, added basil, garlic salt and used feta cheese. Cooked at 400 to save some cooking time and that may have caused It to dry a bit so we added chicken broth for moisture. It was pretty good with the changes, but if you’re not vegetarian, we think I could use some ground Italian chicken sausage as well.
This was a good recipe, easy to follow and execute. It seemed to be missing some seasoning or salt. So next time I will try adding cumin, sea salt, and chili powder.
Delicious, healthy and easy!! Had some fat-free turkey broth so did half broth/half water and topped with mexi cheese blend & cheddar. Will definitely make this again!!
This is a great dish for a lazy weekend meal. Chop veggies and put everything else in a dish and leave to bake and dinner will be a success. I made a wild rice blend on the stove to go with the lentils. Very nice. Next time I will add a variety of frozen veggies and try different spices.
This was an easy, quick and healthy dish that I will definitely make again! I used some of the suggestions made by others, adding cumin and turmeric. It definitely will not work in a 2 quart casserole dish; a 9×13 glass dish worked perfectly. I also added spicy V-8 juice after an hour and a half, and baked it 15 more minutes before adding the cheese. Salt and pepper are a must too. Very tasty after these revisions!
Very good, especially for attempt #2, for which I filled in a layer of garlic mashed potatoes on top, more cheese, and baked another 30 minutes.
It was incredibly bland. It has good potential, though. I might try it again with more spices. I would also recommend using a bigger baking dish. It makes alot. The recipe calls for 2 QT, but it was too small. I ended up using a 3 QT dish and it was perfect.
My updates: * I got my big Dutch oven pot out and stirred all the ingredients together in it. Then I dumped it all into a lasagna dish to cook. * For the carrots I used 1 cup of shredded carrots (I was lazy) * I used 4 cloves of garlic * Added a bit extra water (1/2 c) to it after 1 hr (the lentils were still hard). I cooked it for 1.5 hrs. It’s pretty tasty! I would make it again.
My daughter had lentils on hand. Tried this recipe. It was very good.My granddaughter is on her way to becoming a vegetarian, so she enjoyed this, too. Needed to add more water after an hour, because the beans had soaked up the original chicken broth.